Saturday, July 14, 2012

Quilted Chevron Placemats

One of The How-To Gal's most popular posts (to this day) is my Easy Placemats Tutorial from 2009 when I first started blogging.

Since that time I have used those placemats countless times and LOVED having them. Well, time has passed, my tastes have changed and so has my dinnerware. I decided it was time for a placemat update and I'm going to combine several tutorials to show you how I made my new, quilted chevron placemats:

What you need:

1 1/2 yards of zigzag fabric and 1 1/2 yards of backing fabric. The number of placemats you get out of 1 1/2 yards depends on the size of placemat you want. I cut my pieces 16" x 18" and was able to get six placemats.

Rotary Cutter/fabric cutting board

Sewing machine

Pins

Iron

Patience

Step One:

Measure your place setting vertically and horizontally. Add about an inch to each end for seam allowances.

My pieces turned out to be 16" tall and 18" wide.

Step Two:

After all of your pieces are cut, lay right sides together and pin.

Step Three:

Sew up the sides, leaving a small opening in the middle of one side.

Step Four:

Pull the placemat through the hole you left, revealing the right sides.

Step Five:

Iron your seams flat. Make sure to pay special attention to the opening -
keep the edges folded in and press flat. A top stitch will close the
hole up later.

Step Six:

To get the quilted chevron look, sew along the top edges of your zig zags.